In many work conditions, a worker's visibility to others is crucial to the safety of that person or others. Examples of such situations may include police and fire personnel or construction workers working at night or in low visibility conditions. In such situations, the ability for others to quickly and easily identify the location of such persons may mean the difference between safety and injury. A known method of providing such visibility is the application of reflective materials to clothing and vehicles. A common example is the orange safety vest worn by construction workers. A shortcoming of reflective materials is that they are passive, that is, they rely on light shining on the reflective material in order to provide an indication of the presence of the wearer. One solution to this problem is to equip these workers with flashlights or flares that may be used to indicate that a worker is present. However, this approach is often undesirable because of the necessity of holding the flashlight or flare while performing a task. In many cases, the person in need of additional visibility is performing a task that requires a tool such as a shovel, fire ax or pike. What is needed is a device that provides additional visibility to enhance the safety of a worker without requiring that the worker hold a separate device when performing a task that exposes the worker to injury if they lack such visibility.
In certain circumstances, a person may be required to work in an environment that provides little in the way of ambient light. An example of such a circumstance is a construction worker working at night or in other conditions that do not provide adequate lighting. Other examples may be mining, firefighting or search and rescue operations. Frequently workers in such conditions are required to use tools to perform their work. Examples may include, shovels, axes, pikes, and hammers. When working in these conditions, a worker may drop or misplace a tool and as a result, have to spend time locating the misplaced tool. In the example of firefighting, lost time trying to locate a tool may endanger the firefighter or those that the fire fighter is tasked with rescuing. What is needed is a device that increases the visibility of a tool used in a low-light condition to assist the user in locating a misplaced or dropped tool.
It is therefore an unmet requirement of the prior art to provide a work tool in which a shaft of the work tool provides lighting that is diffused radially along the shaft, enhancing the visibility of the work tool in low light conditions.